The Buddh International Circuit that will host the inaugural Formula 1 Indian Grand Prix has been given the green light by Charlie Whiting after the latest inspection yesterday. The FIA man is said to be happy with the progress made.

“He (Whiting) stated that the progress was more than satisfactory and exceeded expectations from when he last visited the site. He also expressed confidence that the inaugural Indian Grand Prix will be a huge success,” said Vicky Chandhok, head of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India in a statement.

The mandatory final track license will be given the week before the race, when Buddh is complete. The Indian GP, which will happen in end October, will be the third last race of the 2011 season, before Abu Dhabi and the season closing race in Brazil.

Meanwhile, the Turkish GP has been officially dropped from next year’s F1 calendar. The 2012 omission of Turkey is said to be a result of failed negotiation between local organisers and F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone. This is the first time the race has been dropped since it came onboard in 2005.

Team Lotus finished 14th and 15th at Spa yesterday, a performance that the team is very happy with. Not only that, but driver Jarno Truli, who only recently had low morale and confidence, was given a boost and is looking forward to the next race in Italy.

“That is a very good result for the whole team today and goes down as one of our strongest performances since we came into the sport. We had a poor start where both cars were last after making contact in the first corner but we recovered very well, and to have finished in 14th and 15th after that is very pleasing,” said technical chief Mike Gascoyne.

“Both drivers were excellent today, but the pit crew deserve special praise for having taken a massive step forward in their performance. All our stops were exactly what we needed so congratulations to them for a job very well done today,” he added.

Spotted on the T128 at Spa. Football fans should get it, if not there’s always Google!

Trulli is finding his joy back. “I had a great start, passing a few other cars away from the line but then the accident in T1 meant both Heikki and I suffered damage – him to his nosecone, me to the floor and I had to run the whole race with that damage, so to finish 14th after that is just fantastic.

“Apart from the start I enjoyed the whole race – I passed a number of cars and when the safety car came out I was able to close the gap to the cars ahead. That gave me the chance to fight with the Renault (Bruno Senna) and I passed him and was then able to keep pace with the other guys ahead.

“Racing like this, with no problems and with a car I can fight with all afternoon is very satisfying, so now I can’t wait to get back in when we get to Italy and keep up the momentum we’ve built up here,” he said, with a smile we presume.

Since winning the European GP on the streets of Valencia, Sebastian Vettel has never got to the top step of the podium. But at yesterday’s Belgian GP, the reigning world champion returned to winning ways, leading teammate Mark Webber home for a 1-2 for Red Bull. Jenson Button had another brilliant drive to finish third on the podium for McLaren.

In contrast, fellow Brit teammate Lewis Hamilton got into an accident on lap 13 with Kamui Kobayashi, spinning into the barriers and bringing the safety car out. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who was in the running for the win, finished fourth after fading off in the final third.

Next up was Michael Schumacher, the living legend started from the back of the grid to finish fifth, ahead of Mercedes GP teammate Nico Rosberg. Another German, Force India’s Adrian Sutil, was seventh.

Massa was forced to pit an extra time, putting him down to eight, ahead of Lotus Renault GP’s Russian driver Petrov. Pastor Maldonado of Williams scored his first ever point in F1 at Spa.

Making his debut for the Group Lotus sponsored Renault team after displacing the disgruntled Nick Heidfeld (who besides not performing well enough in LRGP’s eyes, was deemed not being a good enough team leader), Bruno Senna finished 13th, a spot ahead of Team Lotus’ Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen in 14th and 15th, respectively. The two green cars were a lap down on the winner, but was classified ahead of Rubens Barrichello’s Williams.

It was an unbelievable start at Spa for most spectators, which saw Mark Webber make his customary poor start to drop from third to eighth. Nico Rosberg went the other direction, getting past it all to second behind pole man Vettel.

His Silver Arrow then slipstreamed pass Seb by Les Combes. The lead wasn’t for too long though, Vettel retook the lead on lap 3. However, the Red Bulls had tyre issues, and Webber had to pit on lap 3, followed by Vettel in the following lap.

Lap 1 drama also came from Bruno Senna, who clashed with Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari. The Spaniard was out, while the Brazilian with the famous family name got a drive through penalty for his part.

In the meantime, the front runners were Alonso, Rosberg, Hamilton and Massa, who exchanged places till the first round of stops at around lap 8. The Bulls, who pitted earlier, came back to take their places at the front, with some nice overtaking moves from Vettel (on Rosberg) and Webber (on Alonso) on display.

That proved to be the order, and Alonso’s change to the less desirable harder tyre saw his challenge fade away. In contrast, the charging Jenson Button had long swept aside the hard rubber, and overtook so many cars that we lost count. His epic drive ended by passing the double world champ for third with two laps to go.

Vettel leads the Driver’s standings comfortably, 259 points to Webber’s 167, with Alonso a further 10 points behind. The Constructor’s championship is Red Bull’s to lose – they lead Ferrari 426 to 295 points. The next race is two weeks from now at Monza.

Jarno Trulli’s performance this season for Team Lotus hasn’t been great. The Italian, who was “rested” to make way for Karun Chandhok at the German GP, but reclaimed his race seat at Hungary, has been highly uncomfortable with the T128′s power steering. The issue became so serious that he started to lose confidence and question his own abilities.

“The worst was at Silverstone. I was totally lost. At Silverstone I stepped into the car and I didn’t know where I was or where the limit was. I was trying to feel it but I didn’t have any feeling. I was not in control of it, and sometimes you ask questions, ‘is it me?’ and you start you have these question marks,” Trulli revealed.

“It’s a much better feeling now. They did a good job with the new power steering system, which is giving me the exact feeling with the car. I think we can still improve the system, but the feeling is okay. For the first time this season I started working with the car and changing many things because many things were becoming very clear for me.

“It’s totally another world. The way I drive is totally different. Before I was a passenger in the car. I just hope now I can build up my confidence day after day and move on. It’s, let’s say not my fault, but my driving style. I’m extremely precise. This has been my weakness and also my strength and when we had this power steering the feeling I was getting it was not the real one. What was happening with the car it was not was transmitting to me,” the old timer added.

“Because I’m so precise, I was reacting to something that was not true. So I was basically chasing something that was not real. I’m not going to say that I’m going to fly now, but I’m now in control of the situation.”

Sounds scary to not feel anything when one’s on the limit in a 300 km/h machine. With that sorted, will Trulli, or Heikki, score Team Lotus’ first points ever in the coming races? Now on a summer break, F1 will be back in Spa on 28 August.

In a recent post, we touched on Lotus Renault GP’s poor form of late. They left Hungary with nothing and have scored just six points in the last four races, in contrast with the 42 points they bagged in the first four. Now fifth in the Constructors’ Championship with 66 points, they are 14 behind Mercedes GP Petronas.

They need to address the slide fast, and will bring improvements from the factory to the next race at Spa-Francorchamps, including wings, bodywork and floor updates. Nick Heidfeld admits that LRGP’s season hinges on the Spa updates – they must work.

“If it doesn’t work, then we are in trouble. Let’s hope for the best,” Heidfeld told Autosport.

“I feel it finally has to work because we have been saying for some races now that we understand the problem, and that we have moved forward. This will be the first time that we really have something big.

“Since we found out our problems we have made some small things. But we have made some big improvements in the wind tunnel now, and it was not that easy to bring all the parts to the circuit yet. So Spa is a very important place for us to go in the right direction,” he added.

Reports say that Renault is undecided on whether to further experiment with a rearward facing exhaust system, as the big updates that are on the way are built around a forward facing concept. We’ll see in Spa.

One of the moments of yesterday’s Hungarian GP, which McLaren’s Jenson Button won ahead of Seb Vettel and Fernando Alonso, was Nick Heidfeld’s explosive incident. The German’s R31 caught fire when exiting the pits for the second time on lap 25, leading to an explosion. He was unharmed.

Apparently, the pitstop took longer than usual due to a wheelnut issue, and Lotus Renault GP believes the R31′s forward facing exhausts overheated while the car was stationary, setting the bodywork on fire. Getting up to racing speed didn’t douse the fire, but made it worse. Heidfeld then parked his car at the side of the pit exit and leapt out. The car’s sidepod then exploded, and other cars had to dodge the debris.

This wasn’t Heidfeld first hot incident this year, as his car also caught fire in free practice at the Spanish GP. “It was a lot more scary. At Barcelona I looked left, saw a small fire and had time to stop. This one, I looked straight, saw the fire and it got hot,” he told Autosport. “I really felt the temperature. It was a bit scary – much more than Barcelona.”

“They are still looking into it. The stop was a bit longer, so that might be one of the reasons, but it is not like the stop was very long – it was not that I was stationary for 20 seconds or something. We are still investigating,” he added.

Their cars may be running hot, but the performance is not. Lotus Renault GP left Hungary without points and have just scored six points in the last four races, in contrast with the 42 points they bagged in the first four races. They are currently fifth in the Constructors’ championship with 66 points, 14 behind Mercedes GP Petronas.

Not many would have bet on him at the start, but Jenson Button has won the Hungarian GP in unpredictable weather conditions. Reigning world champ Sebastian Vettel couldn’t catch the Brit, and had to settle for second. Back to becoming a podium regular, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finished third. The team mates of the podium trio filled places 4 to 6 in the same order, starting from Hamilton, Webber and Massa.

Jenson must love Hungary, as it was the venue of his first ever Formula 1 victory back in 2006 with Honda. This is his second win of the season after that super dramatic race in Canada.

The race started on damp tarmac, and all cars started on intermediate tyres. Pole man Vettel made a great start, pulling ahead of the McLarens, who were side by side in the first set of corners. Hamilton made it stick and was second.

In the meantime, the Silver Arrows of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher made brilliant starts to occupy 4th and 5th, having started in 7th and 9th respectively. In contrast, Adrian Sutil (8th on grid) and Sergio Perez (10th on grid) made bad starts.

Double world champ Alonso, who got Ferrari back to winning ways in the British GP, was on a charge, and overtook both Mercedes cars by the third lap, the same lap where DRS was enabled despite plenty of sideways action. By now, there was a good battle for the lead with Lewis challenging Vettel; the Brit finally taking over when Seb went wide on lap 5.

Speaking of getting wide, Alonso was clearly pushing very hard and visited the runoff areas more than once.

The second and third sectors were getting dry, and everyone was waiting to see who would blink first and dive in for slicks. It was Red Bull for Mark Webber on lap 11. He came out blazing, and the subsequent two laps saw all the front runners pit, starting with Button. The earlier the better, and Button came out to harass Vettel, succeeding on lap 13. Webber passes Alonso for fourth. Hamilton widens his lead.

Meanwhile, Team Lotus’ Jarno Trulli retired on lap 19, joined later by teammate Kovalainen on lap 60. Lotus Renault GP’s Nick Heidfeld provided some drama on lap 25, when his car seemed to explode and catch fire when exiting the pitlane. Another man out is Schumi on lap 29 when he fought with Massa.

The list now reads Hamilton, Button, Vettel, Webber and Alonso. The Ferrari man pitted earlier for fresh rubber and took Webber’s place. The next piece of drama was on lap 46, when leader Hamilton spun at the chicane, letting pass Button for the lead. The rain came into play again at about lap 49, and Button concedes the lead to Lewis, while Vettel spun more than once. Hamilton pitted for inters on lap 50, but Button, now the leader again, stayed out on slicks. Alonso did the same.

This proved to be the right move, as the track dried up. Hamilton is then passed by Alonso, and after a drive through penalty, he is out of contention, yet another frustrating afternoon for the ex-champ. The positions now read Button, Vettel and Alonso, which remained till the end. Ever the fighter, Hamilton didn’t give up after all that’s happened to him, and overtook Webber for fourth. This happened in the midst of a packed midfield scrap.

McLaren is on form, and Vettel doesn’t look invincible anymore, but he still leads the championship by a big margin – Button is fifth and 100 points behind the German’s 234. In the constructors list, Red Bull leads McLaren 383 to 280 points.

The Formula 1 circus will now have a summer break, returning to Spa in Belgium from 26-28 August.